PS4 Is The Top Selling Console, Xbox One Is The Fastest Selling Console

The NPD results are in and the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One launch month statistics are slowly and mystically rolling out. We finally get to find out exactly who won the first month of the official eighth generation console war. The only problem is that, as mentioned, the numbers are a bit of a mystery.

On the opposite side of the spectrum is the PlayStation 4. According to the Sony PlayStation blog the PS4 may not have been the fastest selling console in the United States, but it was the top selling console in the United States. It's a strange way of looking at it, but that's how the numbers roll out.

I'm curious if the stock keeping issue played a strong part in how fast the PS4 sold, though? If they didn't have enough in stock (and they can't keep them in stock) then it would affect how fast the console could continually sell.

More over, as noted on the blog...

“It’s now clear that the launch of PS4 is one for the record books. This afternoon we learned from market research firm NPD Group that PS4 was the top-selling console for November and PlayStation was #1 in sales overall for home consoles. This news comes on the heels of yesterday’s confirmation that the PS4 launch is the biggest ever in the history of game consoles. Ever! And it’s all thanks to you.”

From there, funnily enough, Sony pulled a Microsoft and start rattling off pointless statistics about button mashing and how many boogers they saw people flick with the camera or some other useless crap like that. I mean really, when console fanboys want to go to the system war threads and get their flame on, no one is going to go in saying “Oh yeah, well my console has 7.1 million spectate sessions! Take that!!!”

Nevertheless, things look a lot more mysterious when it comes to software. Despite the fact that both systems have some major movers, NPD only counts the physical sales and that muddles the console war landscape a bit.

But don't worry, neither the Xbox One or PS4 managed to get a console exclusive in NPD's top 10. All of the top 10 was dominated by multiplatform titles, and that even includes the current eighth generation console leader, the Wii U. Check out the list, courtesy of Joystiq.

Well, EA, 2K Games/Take-Two Interactive, Ubisoft and Activision must be terribly happy looking over that chart.

AAA industry is crashing? Not according to casuals buying multiplatform titles.

Anyway, the Xbox One and PS4 still have a few months to go before we can start saying one or the other is clearly winning. For pro-consumer advocates this war probably looks dreary given that it shows Americans are still willing to strongly support corporations completely and entirely aimed at stripping away rights, while pro-nationalists are probably disappointed that a Japanese console could do so well in North America right out of the gate. No one is happy but every corporation is a few hundred coin richer thanks to conviction of both sides.

But don't worry pro-nationalists... IGN is reporting that market research firm DFC believes that the Xbox One will continue to fare well in North America, taking a home advantage in sales over the PS4 throughout the eighth gen console war. I guess we'll see if the American muscle can out-power the efficiency of Japanese engineering as the console war presses on... and press on, it will.